These are from last Sunday's training session, but between cantankerous internet routers and crazy schedules, they're just now getting posted.

Scary tarp is not so scary!

We all know that there are no tarps out in the middle of the trails at Horse Camp, so why do we have India walk over them? Because we're teaching her to trust the person. By walking over it, by stopping on top and standing until she's asked to walk forward again, she's learning that what looks scary at the outset, what sounds scary, too, really isn't so very scary after all.

This also shows that all the time spent asking India to not brace on the end of the rope, to give to pressure, to follow the cues, well, it's all sunk into her horsie brain. She is scared, but she yields to the pressure and walks forward when asked to, she stops when Jenny asks her to, and she stands quietly until given the signal to move forward. I don't mind that she hurried to get off the tarp. She walked on it. She stopped. She listened. She didn't freak. Smart girl.

So, what else can be done with a tarp? Why this of course. It can be decoratively draped over the horse! I guarantee the first time I'm riding India and it starts to rain and I pull my slicker off the back of the saddle where it's been rolled up and tied and go to put it on and it's flapping all around, India is not going to be freaked out. This is good. Getting tossed by being bucked off a freaked out horse isn't my idea of fun. I hate having to walk back to the barn.

She's learning all about the soft feel. When Jenny first started riding India, she used a one-rein stop rather than pulling back with both hands equally. Do that with a green horse and they're liable to flip over backwards at the worst, buck at the best. Pulling back with only one rein turns them in a circle and because their nose is being pulled back pretty far, they don't turn a wide circle, but a small one and they learn to stop because it's hard to keep turning small circles. As soon as the horse stops, the rider releases pressure on the rein. Release from pressure is a reward. Well, India is becoming more educated, so Jenny is introducing a soft feel on her mouth using both hands together. At first she barely took up pressure and as soon as India lowered her nose, the pressure was released. Stops were still via one rein. Over the past two months, India has learned to slow down from the soft feel and Jenny has introduced stopping, too.

Stopping and slowing are also done by the rider's overall body position. The more forward the rider leans, the faster the horse will go. The more the rider sits up straight and deep in the saddle, the slower the horse will go. The body position changes can be very subtle, no more than a tilt of the pelvis and hips, and the horse will respond. That's what Jenny is working on here.

I've upped India's lessons to three times a week and it's expensive, but oh, the benefits! India is putting it all together. You can see that in this next video out working cows.

I've been riding India, too, but there are no pictures of it this past week. She really is smooth. I cannot believe how incredibly lucky I was to get such a nice filly as a surprise. I was also really smart to hire Jenny to work her. She's patient and thorough and India has had an excellent start as a riding horse. She has learned to stand quietly when we stop, when being mounted, to yield to leg pressure so the rider can open and close a gate without getting off, and she ties beautifully. I never feel as though I can leave Asia when she's tied up because she has broken her halter by getting to the end of her lead rope and panicking. Just not trained properly as a youngster and that's a very hard habit to break. India? She gets to the end of the rope and moves forward to relieve the pressure. It's such a joy.